What's New?

Current Affairs Updates - 8th November 2017

Current Affairs Updates - 8th November 2017

International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict on 6th November. “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.

On 5 November 2001, the UN General Assembly declared 6 November of each year as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict.

Though mankind has always counted its war casualties in terms of dead and wounded soldiers and civilians, destroyed cities and livelihoods, the environment has often remained the unpublicized victim of war.Water wells have been polluted, crops torched, forests cut down, soils poisoned, and animals killed to gain military advantage.

National Affairs

Nagaland is set to host ‘Hornbill Festival’ for 10 days from December 1 to 10 at the Naga Heritage village Kisama with a main motive to promote the ‘plastic-free’ mission all around.

The Tourism Joint Secretary, M Shayung Phom said this during a coordination meeting with the concerned departments and representatives of Tribal Hohos. He also urged the Hohos to give their best effort towards making the festival a grand success. Phom further informed that picturesque Kisama have been declared as a ‘Plastic Free Zone’ during the festival and asked the Hohos to propagate and ensure that no plastic is used throughout ten days festival.

The Joint Secretary also claimed that the inflow of both international and domestic tourists to Nagaland has increased drastically since the introduction of Hornbill festival.

Surat Municipal Corporation has been chosen for the ‘Best City Bus Services Award’ by the Central government

Gujarat model is considered as one of the best models that have provided employment, economy, infrastructure and law and order to the state.

Notably, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs gave the award to Surat Municipal Corporation for operating the 'best city bus services'. The corporation has bagged the award for attracting 87 percent of a private vehicle and auto-rickshaw users to its buses.

The DDUGJY is one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Power and will facilitate 24x7 supply of power. It focuses on providing electrification to all villages, Feeder separation to ensure sufficient power to farmers and regular supply to other consumers, Improvement of Sub-transmission and distribution network to improve the quality and reliability of the supply and Metering to reduce the losses.

The government has directed that investigations in cases of Paradise Papers will be monitored through a reconstituted Multi-Agency Group, headed by CBDT Chairman and including representatives from the Central Board of Direct Taxes, ED (Enforcement Directorate), RBI (Reserve Bank of India) and FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit)

A Multi-Agency Group (MAG) will investigate the Paradise Papers on offshore financial holdings, including a list 714 Indian individuals and entities, the government said on Monday.

The government also said that it had so far zeroed in on 147 actionable cases and 279 non-actionable cases relating to the earlier published Panama Papers.

"The government has directed that investigations in cases of Paradise Papers will be monitored through a reconstituted Multi-Agency Group, headed by CBDT Chairman and including representatives from the Central Board of Direct Taxes, ED (Enforcement Directorate), RBI (Reserve Bank of India) and FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit)," a Finance Ministry release said here.

The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) opened its campus to an Israel Centre on Sunday which is aimed at becoming a “bridge of academic collaboration” between India and Israel.

The centre will be largely based on research by faculty and will also include faculty and student exchange programmes.

The Consul General of Israel to Bengaluru, Dana Kursh, during the inauguration of the centre, said the initiative was spearheaded by the heads of IIMB and Coller School of Management. “Both our countries have a similar ecosystem in terms of business, academia supported by the government, and research. Previously, the Karnataka Israel Research and Development agreement facilitated research with state-funding from both Israel and Karnataka.

International Affairs

Tokyo’s Artificial Intelligence ‘boy’ named “Shibuya Mirai” is the first bot to gain a residency. He does not exist physically but he can have text conversations with humans on the widely used LINE messaging app.

An AI character was made an official resident of a busy central Tokyo district on Saturday, with the virtual newcomer resembling a chatty seven-year-old boy.

The boy named “Shibuya Mirai” does not exist physically, but he can have text conversations with humans on the widely used LINE messaging app.

Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, an area popular with fashion-conscious young people, has given the character his own special residence certificate.

This makes him Japan’s first, and maybe the world’s first, artificial intelligence bot to be granted a place on a real-life local registry.

Nepal inaugurated a bridge by Ambassador of India to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri which was built with India's financial assistance of USD 430,626 on the Kaligandaki river near China border.

The bridge at Jomsom area in Mustang district not only provides direct motorable connectivity to people of Mustang but also benefits thousands of tourists and pilgrims visiting the famous Muktinath temple and upper Mustang for trekking, the Indian Embassy here said in a statement.

Defence & Railway

Indo-Bangladesh joint military 13-day exercise Sampriti-7 begins at India's Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte in Mizoram and at the Joint Training Node at Umroi in Meghalaya

This is the 7th edition of the joint training exercise, which will end on November 18. The 13-day exercise will be conducted at India's Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte in Mizoram and at the Joint Training Node at Umroi in Meghalaya.

The Inter Services Public Relation Directorate-ISPR of Bangladesh said that the main objective of the exercise is to conduct counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in peace-keeping activities in the United Nations (UN).

Indian Railways Launch World’s Highest Bridge on River Chenab in J&K

The Chenab Bridge in Jammu and Kashmir now gets the highest railway arch bridge in the world at 359 meters, (1,178 ft), even taller than the Eifel Tower. To provide direct connectivity to the Kashmir Valley, the Indian Railways on Monday launched the main arch of the world’s highest bridge on River Chenab in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district. The 1.3-km-long bridge that forms a crucial link in the 111-km stretch between Katra and Banihal is being constructed at a cost of Rs 1,250 crore. Designed by consultants from Finland and Germany, the challenging task of putting up the steel arch was inaugurated on Monday.

Indian Navy is likely to go with an advanced catapult-based aircraft launch mechanism (CATOBAR) from the U.S. for its second indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-II)

IAC-II will have a CATOBAR launch. However, the kind of propulsion is yet to be decided,” a senior officer said.The U.S. has offered India its latest EMALS technology, developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., which has just been installed on the Gerald Ford carrier.

While the older generation of CATOBAR was powered by a steam catapult, EMALS uses an electric motor-driven catapult instead, which allows the launch of much heavier aircraft and also reduces the stress on the aircraft.

India on Tuesday test-fired the indigenously-designed and developed long-range subsonic cruise missile Nirbhay from an Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odisha's Balasore.

The missile, with a strike range of 1,000 kilometer, was test-fired from a specially-designed launcher from the launch complex-3 of the ITR, defence sources said.

The cruise missile is expected to supplement the Indo-Russian joint venture supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, which can carry warheads up to 290 kilometer.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar has envisaged Operation Digital Blackboard in every school in the next few years. Addressing a two-day National Workshop on School Education in National Capital, Javadekar said, the workshop will focus on five themes - Digital Education, Physical Education, Value Education, Life Skills Education and Experiential Learning.

The Union Minister said education is incomplete without Physical Education. Students must do exercise, yoga, aerobics, running depending upon their choice to stay fit and healthy. The Minister further said life skill education and value education is the need of the hour and one must inculcate these attributes in his behavior for the holistic development.

Agreements (MoU)

Rs 10,000 Crore MoU signed between Govt of India & Patanjali at the World Food India 2017

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) of Rs 10, 000 Crore was signed between the Government of India (GoI) and Patanjali on Friday at the World Food India 2017.

The MoU was signed by Managing Director of Patanjali, Acharya Balkrishna and Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the Union Cabinet Minister of Food Processing in the Government of India.

Union Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore met his Egyptian counterpart Khaled Abd El Aziz and discussed ways to step up cooperation in the field of sports and youth affairs.

Singh, who is visiting the country to attend the World Youth Forum in which over 50 countries including India are participating, congratulated Egypt for qualifying for the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia.

Aziz praised the successful organisation of the FIFA World Cup Under-17 by India and expressed interest in Mission 11 Million (MXIM) football outreach programme.

Summit /Conference / Events / Host

On November 10 the Vice President will inaugurate the Central India’s biggest agriculture summit ,the 9th edition of Agrovision scheduled from10-13 November at Reshimbagh Ground to train farmers about the new technologies, innovative methods to increase the farm yield, bridge the knowledge gap and empower them through enhanced income.

Agro vision is the brainchild of Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. The summit aims to train farmers about the new technologies, innovative methods to increase the farm yield, bridge the knowledge gap and empower them through enhanced income.

Five-time world champion MC Mary Kom remained on course for a fifth gold medal at the Asian Boxing Championships after she advanced to the final on Tuesday.

Mary Kom defeated Japan's Tsubasa Komura in a unanimous 5-0 verdict to make the summit clash for the fifth time in her six appearances at the event.

Should she go on to win the final, it would be her first Asian gold medal in the 48kg category.

India ended the Commonwealth Shooting Championships with a rich haul of 20 medals after Satyendra Singh and Sanjeev Rajput won a gold and a silver respectively in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions event in Gold Coast at brisbane, Australia

The Indian squad won a total of six gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals during the competition.

Apart from Satyendra and Rajput, India's Chain Singh also qualified for the eight-man final of the 3 Positions event on the final day of the competition.

Satyendra qualified in second place with a total of 1,162 with a best of 394 out of 400 in the Prone position, while veteran Rajput qualified in third place with 1,158 and Chain Singh was fourth with the same score but lesser inner 10s.

Obituary

Actor Vettoor Purushan ,70 passes away

Actor Vettoor Purushan, 70, died here on Sunday. He was suffering from age-related illnesses. Purushothaman, better known as Purushan, hailed from Vettoor near Varkala. He debuted in Malayalam film industry in 1974 through ‘Nadeenadanmaare Aavashyamundu.’ However, the movie that made this short man popular was ‘Loose Loose Arappiri Loose’ released in 1988.